Brief introduction of the tool
Twitter is a free social networking site that allows people to communicate with each other. When a person develops a profile, they communicate by posting "tweets" which can be up to 140 characters. Other people with Twitter profiles, who are interested in what you are doing, can "follow" your "tweets". Similar to Facebook, each profile has a news feed that displays new "tweets" along with the person's username and picture. One can reply to other people's "tweets" or directly refer to them by putting an "@" symbol before their username. Other advantages that users have are the ability to post links to other pages or post "twitpics" that their followers can easily access.
Advantages of the tool
Easy to use
Post tweets from your cell phone
Allows many people to communicate with one person
Contact people who you may not be able to using e-mail, IM, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
Asynchronous communication, but could be synchronous if both people are on their profiles
Allows communicating without talking
Disadvantages (limitations) of the tool
Limited to 140 characters
May not always receive an immediate response
Question of credibility of user
Application of the tool in your subject area
Twitter is a very useful tool that teachers and students could use to communicate. Since it is free, the teacher could have each student create an account and then create his/her own account. The students would "follow" the teacher in order to read his/her "tweets". The teacher could tweet things such as asking the students' opinions of that day's math lesson or questions that they have about homework. The teacher would have to limit what kind of question he/she asked because of the 140 character limit. However, if a student needed more space, they could simply post a new "tweet". Twitter could also be used to help student's interact with each other. For example, the teacher could ask "What plans do you have for Spring Break?" Teachers can control what is posted on their site and are able to edit any inappropriate comments made by students. Because Twitter allows numerous people to "follow" one person, everyone's comment will be seen by each other. This is a good thing because questions/comments won't get duplicated and only one person will have to ask it.
Communication Tool:
Group Members: Jordan Hervey & Robin WilsonScreenshot or logo
Brief introduction of the tool
Twitter is a free social networking site that allows people to communicate with each other. When a person develops a profile, they communicate by posting "tweets" which can be up to 140 characters. Other people with Twitter profiles, who are interested in what you are doing, can "follow" your "tweets". Similar to Facebook, each profile has a news feed that displays new "tweets" along with the person's username and picture. One can reply to other people's "tweets" or directly refer to them by putting an "@" symbol before their username. Other advantages that users have are the ability to post links to other pages or post "twitpics" that their followers can easily access.
Application of the tool in your subject area
Twitter is a very useful tool that teachers and students could use to communicate. Since it is free, the teacher could have each student create an account and then create his/her own account. The students would "follow" the teacher in order to read his/her "tweets". The teacher could tweet things such as asking the students' opinions of that day's math lesson or questions that they have about homework. The teacher would have to limit what kind of question he/she asked because of the 140 character limit. However, if a student needed more space, they could simply post a new "tweet". Twitter could also be used to help student's interact with each other. For example, the teacher could ask "What plans do you have for Spring Break?" Teachers can control what is posted on their site and are able to edit any inappropriate comments made by students. Because Twitter allows numerous people to "follow" one person, everyone's comment will be seen by each other. This is a good thing because questions/comments won't get duplicated and only one person will have to ask it.
Find a tutorial video on YouTube
Useful Resources
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711-getting-started/entries/14019-what-is-following
www.twitter.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
http://help.twitter.com/portal